COLUMN: The shemozzle that is Ontario's launch of recreational marijuana

WINDSOR — Last week, Ontario’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission said the deadline to apply for authorization to open a cannabis store was Jan. 25.

But on Monday, none of the seven people and companies chosen to operate stores in West Region, which includes London and Windsor, appeared to have applied for authorization. Some in Ontario have applied, but the information is not public yet, the AGCO said.

And now, it says there is no deadline.

Instead, “the expectation is that applicants will do so in a timely way,” spokesperson Raymond Kahnert wrote in an email.

Meanwhile, training for store employees is to start Feb. 11 — in two weeks.

It’s the latest in the shemozzle that is the launch of recreational marijuana.

All that angst — municipalities concerned about the number and location of stores, residents fearing, rightly or wrongly, their kids will get high, their property values will plummet, crime will rise. It will be “like opening a Pandora’s box,” one man warned city council. All that trepidation — and the government isn’t inspiring much confidence.

First, municipalities have no control over the number and location of stores. The only restriction is they can’t be within 150 metres of schools. Will they be next to mental health care facilities or addiction treatment centres? “Some guy in Toronto,” as Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens put it, will decide.

Municipalities were allowed to opt out of hosting stores, and many did because of the lack of control. So, cannabis is legal, but finding a store will depend on what city you’re in. Windsor, Essex, Amherstburg, Kingsville and Leamington opted in. Tecumseh, LaSalle and Lakeshore opted out.

Yet opting out won’t shield municipalities from anticipated problems, like impaired driving, because people can still buy cannabis online from the Ontario Cannabis Store or from neighbouring municipalities. But cities that opted out will get less money from the government, and therefore have fewer resources to deal with those problems, even if they opt in later.

And most municipalities that opted in still won’t get a store initially because only 25 licences will be issued initially. Seven licences were granted for all of West Region, stretching from Windsor to Niagara and including London, Hamilton, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph. Those licences can be used anywhere that has opted to have a store and has at least 50,000 population.

Four of the stores appear headed to Hamilton and one to Niagara. That leaves two for everyone else. So Windsor, neighbour to Leamington and Kingsville, which host four of the country’s five largest

cannabis

companies by market value and are a hub in a new, bumper industry, probably won’t get one.

“The AGCO does not have the authority to disperse stores within a region,” Kahnert stated.

So we’ll ship our product out because producers can’t sell their product at their sites yet, either.

“If you have to drive to Hamilton for a couple of months until your city gets a store, that’s no big deal,” Olivia Brown, a cannabis consultant from Hamilton, told the Star last week.

Does she know where Windsor is? It’s more than 300 kilometres from Hamilton.

So those here who don’t want to or can’t order cannabis online will be left to buy unregulated — hopefully safe — marijuana from illegal dealers.

Does this make sense?

The government probably thought choosing store operators through a lottery was the fairest way to start. Local businessman Rob Katzman and his son, Sam, have been operating a cannabis store in Red Deer, Alberta since November. They’re waiting for licences for two more stores in Alberta. They’ve had multiple liquor licenses, also regulated by the AGCO, for adult entertainment establishments here. They want to open a cannabis store here, but their names weren’t pulled from the hat.

“I would have liked to show I have experience,” said Sam Katzman.

No one has a lot of experience because recreational cannabis became legal only three months ago.

“But,” said Katzman, “it’s important to have good operators. There are people who have a lot of retail experience. There are a lot of people who have previous experience with the AGCO, like us.”

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